I haven't seen it yet but I here: Big-budget, effects-filled Hollywood flick "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" smashed its way through box office records by Monday, its sixth full day in theaters, with global ticket sales nearing $400 million.

Paramount Pictures, which released the movie about shape-shifting aliens battling for control of Earth, said the movie was its highest-grossing international debut ever, ringing overseas cash registers to the tune of $217 million through Sunday and beating the release of "Transformers 2."

The movie opened simultaneously in 58 overseas markets last Wednesday, along with its U.S. and Canadian debut. Global ticket sales, excluding Monday's international box office estimates which have not yet been forecast, stand at $398 million.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (also known as Transformers 3) is a 2011 American science fiction/action film, part of the Transformers film series, directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and was released on June 29, 2011. The film is presented in regular 2D, Real D 3D and IMAX,featuring Dolby Surround 7.1 sound.

Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and John Turturro reprise their starring roles, with Peter Cullen returning as the voice of Optimus Prime and Hugo Weaving returning as the voice of Megatron. Ehren Kruger, who collaborated in the writing of the last film, was again involved in the writing. Despite having been initially confirmed for the film,and with the film already into principal photography, it was announced that Megan Fox would not be reprising her role from the previous two films. With Fox's character (Mikaela Banes) being dropped, Sam was assigned a new love interest, portrayed by English model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Also, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, having written the last two films, did not return for this installment in the series,which Orci had earlier somewhat anticipated, fearing the duo would "risk getting stale". Bay has stated this would be his last installment in the series.In May 2011, it was announced that Paramount Pictures had bumped Transformers: Dark of the Moon's release date of July 1, 2011, two days earlier, June 29, in order to receive an early response to footage.The film was then released one day earlier, June 28, in select 3D and IMAX theatres, nationwide. The budget and marketing costs are estimated to total $270 million.

In U.S. and Canadian theaters, where "Transformers" debuted in late-night previews on Tuesday last week, the movie will have taken in $181 million by the time the U.S. Independence Day holiday ends on Monday night, according to Paramount's estimates.

Industry watchers said the movie's four-day (Friday through Monday) domestic box office forecast of $116.4 million is the best ever for an Independence Day weekend, which is one of the heaviest moviegoing periods of the year. It eclipsed the $115.8 million debut of "Spider-Man 2" over the same weekend in 2006.

On Monday, Paramount revised its Sunday estimates slightly to $97.5 million for the three-day weekend --

Friday through Sunday -- from a previous $97.4 million.

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"Transformers" earned a whopping $24,300 per-theater average from around 4,000 theaters over the three days. By contrast, the No. 2 domestic movie, Disney/Pixar's animated "Cars 2" earned $26.2 million over the three days ($32.1 million for the four days ending Monday) from just under 4,100 theaters. Its per-theater average was about $6,400.

About 60 percent of "Transformers'" domestic revenues came from theaters showing it in more expensive 3D, and about 70 percent of the international box office tally came from 3D, which should help bolster the format that in recent months has seemed to fade in popularity.

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"What you take away is that if you give the public the right movie in the right way, audiences are happy to pay the upcharge," said Don Harris, executive vice president of distribution at Paramount.